Guns kill people, and semi-automatic guns kill even more people

When the Second Amendment to the American Constitution was framed in 1791, enshrining the right to bear firearms, it took rather longer to load a gun than it does today.

200 years ago, it took several minutes to reload a shotgun to fire one cartridge. On Friday, Adam Lanza fired at least 300 rounds with an assault rifle and two handguns in five minutes, before he shot himself as security moved in on him.

In 1791, he'd barely have had time to fire two cartridges in that time – and the individual firepower of those shots probably wouldn't have been enough to kill a human being.

Defenders of the American right to bear arms are invoking 18th century legislation to defend the use of 21st century weapons. Of course, people should be allowed to hunt but you don't need battlefield-level armoury to do it.

Contrary to popular belief, it's actually pretty easy to get a gun in Britain (albeit a lot harder than in America). And millions of people are licensed to use them in this country. It's not much harder getting a gun than getting a passport – which practically all adults have. All you need to do is fill in a form, get a referee to sign it, promise that you have no drink, drugs or mental health issues, and then have a friendly interview with a policeman from the firearms squad.

The big difference here is the sort of gun you end up getting. The vast majority of licensed weapons in this country are shotguns for shooting game. Of course you can kill people with them but it's really quite difficult – they're designed for firing at small, unprotected birds; not large, clothed human beings. And you can only fire two cartridges before you have to go through the laborious process of reloading.

There are exceptions of course – like Derrick Bird in Cumbria in 2010; or Michael Ryan, the Hungerford gun nut, armed with two semi-automatic rifles and a handgun, who killed 16 people (including his mother, just like Adam Yanza) in 1987.

But, on the whole, if a troubled, violent young man lashes out here, he would be unlikely to kill more than several victims before the police moved in. A ban on automatic and semi-automatic weapons in America would still respect the Second Amendment, and end up with many fewer gunshot victims.